6th of 57, E89

[SkyHog]

Conchas State Park Airport, Conchas, NM (E89)

Conchas State Park is one of the elusive airports for me. I have tried over 10 times to get here, and have had to cancel everytime for a different reason. Last week, it was IMC, about a month before, it was winds gusting over 40 knots. Today....well, today was perfect. Sort of.

Flying out to Conchas, I had a ground speed over 170knots, which was way more than I had predicted, and way more than any weather briefing suggested. I made what was planned for just over an hour flight in about thirty minutes. The air was glass smooth at 9500 feet, but the air carriers were complaining about every altitude assigned. Every check in was made with "smooth" or "constant chop." After someone called ATC to report that FL380 was smooth, I just had to (since ATC was slow anyways) throw out that 9500 was smooth. ATC replied with "Thanks, I'm sure the air carriers will appreciate that." Eeek. Guess she didn't think it was very funny.

Back to the report: The windsock is place in a position that can be seen from quite a ways out. My original plan was to cross midfield to check the windsock, but I saw the windsock well before getting to midfield. I had to cross anyways since the wind favored runway 9.

Downwind takes you over the massive lake (massive by New Mexico standards, for sure). As I turned base today, a nice gentlemen came on the radio and asked if I'd need anything. Since I didn't, I thanked him and proceeded to land.

Conchas has retroreflective lighting. I swore I had my video camera running during landing, but for some reason I only captured a few seconds of my taxi instead, so I have a blurry still shot of a retroreflective light. Its pretty neat. Essentially, it is a board that is painted with highly reflective colors (blue on taxiway, white on runway) and they reflect your landing lights back at you.

There is no fuel or any other services at Conchas, but the taxiways are now paved. The transient parking ramp is by the first entrance to runway 9. The entire airport is surrounded by barbed wire, but there is a way out by the hangar by the ramp. I wish I had found it BEFORE I climbed over the barbed wire fence to get out. Ouch.

Next door to the airport is a gas station. If you really want to get some car gas, the price is $2.349 a gallon. Slightly more expensive than gas in Albuquerque. There are not a lot of snacks located inside, but if you are headed to the lake, I suggest stopping in, for two big reasons: 1) The ladies that work there are really, really nice. 2) You'll never see the opening in the fence to the golf course unless you're looking from the parking lot of the gas station.

The opening is important. It will save you a very long walk to the Lake, because you can cut across what has to be the worst looking golf course I've ever seen. Be careful, there are snake holes EVERYWHERE, so I'll bet snakes habitate the area (although I didn't see any).

The lake is a bit of a walk from the airport. I got about 3/4 of the way there before I got tired of walking, and realized I had better head home. It took me about 10 minutes to almost get there. Upon takeoff, it appeared closer than I saw, so I think I may have been walking towards the wrong part of the lake.

The ride home, quite frankly, stunk. It was constant moderate turbulence the whole way, enough to prompt a pilot report from me for something other than "Occasional Light Chop, sky clear." My ground speed going home was a blistering 65 knots at times. What took 30 minutes one way, now took over 2 hours the other way.


CONCHAS STATE PARK QUICK FACTS:
Airport Elevation: 4230ft
Runways 9/27: 4790'x60', asphalt surface
CTAF: 122.9
Nick's NOTAMS: Retro Reflective Lighting in place. Check it out - its cool. To get out of the airport, avoid climbing over the barbed wire. Find the gate by the closest hangar. NO FUEL AVAILABLE.

PHOTOS:
1) Approaching Conchas Lake area from the west.
2) Closer, more detail on Conchas Lake
3) Conchas State Park from the Air
4) My gorgeous plane, sitting on the ramp (tied down just for you Richard )
5) Welcome to Conchas sign
6) As close as I got to the lake before turning around
7) Very Blurry Retro Reflective Light

 

[Bill]

To get out of the airport, avoid climbing over the barbed wire. Find the gate by the closest hangar.

Maybe your gaming and drinking days aren't quite over yet.

 

[Richard]

So, once you got to the lake what were you going to do, pee in it?

 

[SkyHog]

So, once you got to the lake what were you going to do, pee in it?

Maybe.

I was more interested in finding out if it would be a good fishing destination. I've determined that it would be if I brought one of those collapsable bikes with me.

 

[Richard]

Maybe.

I was more interested in finding out if it would be a good fishing destination. I've determined that it would be if I brought one of those collapsable bikes with me.

I can see it now. You packed the bike and fishing rod and flew out to Conchas. You're riding your bike out to the lake and some of those rattlesnakes you didn't see bite out your tires. No worries, you tell yourself and proceed to catch your limit of fish. It's been a great day so you stayed a bit longer than you should have and now it's getting on towards dark. It's also getting cold and pushing that bike through the sand with a passel of fish slung over your shoulder is getting hard. You left your jacket in the plane so you decide to hustle up. Scrapped and bruised, you finally get to the ramp and can't see a thing because it's so dark. No worries, you have a flashlight in the plane, right next to your jacket. Just then, it hits you. You realize you left your keys down by the lake. You didn't bring your sleeping bag because it wouldn't fit with the bike. There are no services at Conchas so you figure you'll drain some fuel to build a fire. Thank God you didn't give up smoking 'cause you at least have matches. A week goes by and they find your frozen carcass next to a burned out a/c and cigarettes strewn across the ramp with bicycle tires all swelled up from the venom. No one can figure out how that happened.

Merry Christmas, Nick!